Back to Basics – God’s “New Thing”

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19a NIV)

All too often we as Christians can get carried away with our own knowledge and add traditions, good ideas and religious practices to the Word of God.  We can even become so taken with ideas, knowledge and practices that we stray from the essential fact of the Gospel – that we are called to be in a relationship with God and one another, not to the practice of a religion or philosophy.

This is an all-encompassing way of life, not something that can be relegated to a few church meetings or services on one or more days of the week.  When we fail to recognise that simple fact, we can easily grow cold, and let “religious duty” fill in the spaces that have been emptied by our lack of relationship with the Lord.  (see also: http://www.mcmnet.org/2009/05/fan-the-flame-mission-uk-2009/)

What we find in the first Church (as recorded in the early chapters of the book of Acts), is a radical Christianity that was a total way of life for believers and centred on the Love of God and the love of one another.  Two aspects of this way of life are summed up in the two key messages Mainstream has been called to proclaim, and are outlined below.  When we put these into practice by making them a part of our “DNA” then we will find that we will see so much more of the Righteousness, Power, Love, and Grace of the Lord come alive in all that we do, say and think.

Not only that, but we will also see the desire grow within us to reach out with God’s Love to the Lost in our communities and across the world – both with the Message of the Gospel, and the desire to preach that Message in practical ways.  We will also see the Lord bless those efforts with much fruit.

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” (Francis of Assisi, Founder of the Franciscan order, 1181-1226)

Christ-centred Unity to the Church

If the Church is to truly make an impact on the world, win the lost to Christ and make a real difference in the world, then we MUST put aside those things which divide, our competitiveness, jeolosies and isolation, or we will fall.  This is the desire of Christ Himself, something so essential that in one of His last prayers to the Father when He was on this earth stated this as a central theme:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  (John 17:21-23 NIV)

Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord again and again makes it clear that we who have accepted Christ as our only Lord and Saviour are One Body, One Family, and that only by showing that love for one another and acting in unity of purpose will the world see that Jesus is Lord.  It is also the place where the Lord bestows His blessing (Psalm 133: 1-3), and the place where we will see victory against the enemy.

When we want to find the best way to grow our local church, see people come to Christ, and find victory in all things, we must first look to our attitude towards other believers, and how we put Jesus’ desire for unity within the body of Christ into action.  It is here in obedience to God’s Word that we will find the grace, blessing and power to carry out the mission that Jesus claimed as His own in Luke 4: 18-19, and which He later commissioned the Church to continue.

They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers. Many miracles and wonders were being done through the apostles, and everyone was filled with awe.

All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared their belongings with one another. They would sell their property and possessions, and distribute the money among all, according to what each one needed. Day after day they met as a group in the Temple, and they had their meals together in their homes, eating with glad and humble hearts, praising God, and enjoying the good will of all the people.

And every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.   …There was no one in the group who was in need.

(Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:34a GNB)

The Church at Work – Christian Business Ministry

I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.  (Isaiah 43:19b-21 NIV)

It is more than a business run by Christians, or one run on Biblical principles and ethics. It includes businesses supporting ministry as Paul did with his tent-making/leather-working business, the Patriarchs with their flocks and herds or Amos with his farm. It can include the sale of ministry materials such as books and audio-visual materials, but it is more than the sum of all these things. It assumes that there is no barrier between the sacred and the secular, in fact, that division is Gnostic heresy. Any Christian’s life should be a ministry.

The concept of ‘Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life’ brings us closer to what a Business Ministry is. The great monasteries, before they became corrupt, were Christian communities that used business to bring blessings to the areas in which they served. Medicine and Hospitals, Education and Schools, Law and the Courts as well as Clergy and the churches all came from and were all supported by that mediaeval application of Christian Business.

The fundamental concept is that a business can be a blessing in and of itself. It can ease the hardship of others in their daily fight to survive.  When the struggle for survival ceases to be all-consuming, people have time to do other things, not least of which is to do God’s work and to do work God’s way. Food, clothing, power, housing are all ways in which people can be set free.

Good businesses, ethically run are witnesses in themselves to the presence of the Kingdom of God in our midst. The use of the resources created by business should be a powerful tool in the advancement of God’s Kingdom. We are all stewards of God’s earth. It is, simply, good stewardship; but stewardship that has been creatively thought through, in the context of the Christian community, according to biblical principles and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Christian Business Ministry is an integral part of Mainstream’s work and philosophy.  The resources that the Lord has given to the Church are simply tools to carry out His work.  They may come through any source, be it trade or giving; and be used for any purpose He directs, from providing a salary for Church leaders to helping another believer fund a new business.

N.B. U.S. readers, especially, need to realise that the separation of Powers (Church and State etc.) and the Unity of Sacred and Secular are NOT the same thing. Both are originally Biblical principles.